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Old Georgie Buck/Georgie Buck
Traditional Old-Time, Breakdown- Southeast: Piedmont and Appalachian region, relatively rare banjo song;
ARTIST: Played on the banjo by Dent Wimmer at his home in Floyd, Floyd County, VA.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s;
RECORDING INFO: Global Village C217, (Black fiddle and banjo players) Joe and Odel Thompson - "Old Time Music From the North Carolina Piedmont." Rounder CD 0382, Marvin Gaster - "Uncle Henry's Favorites."
OTHER NAMES: Georgie Buck; Barbara Buck; Old Georgie Buck;
SOURCES: "The tune was also in the repertoire of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, guitarist and banjo player Elizabeth Cotten, and was played by African-American fiddler Joe Thompson in GDGD tuning." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). American Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cecelia Conway. 1995); Recordings by Dick Roberts and Joe Thompson & Odell Thompson (Smithsonian Folkways SF CD 40079) and Odell Thompson (Rounder CD 0439) clearly belong to Conway's banjo song genre, although a 1927 recording by The Hill Billies (reissued on Document DOCD-8041) treats it more like a regular song. A rather odd-sounding field holler version by Leonard Emanuel (Rounder CD 0071) is indicative of another way in which this song was used. Doc Watson also does a banjo version.
NOTES: "Heard in many parts of the South, but relatively rare" (Kerry Blech). The tune is known as a black Southern banjo song.
Georgia Buck belongs to what Cecilia Conway calls 'the banjo song genre'. Such songs are usually characterized by the following five musical features: 1) rhythmic and syncopated playing throughout the performance, especially when singing; 2) elaborated instrumental interludes; 3) compressed vocal lines of two or more syllables per beat; 4) occasional but irregular interruptions by instrumental interludes within the stanza; and 5) varied repetition of instrumental elements. (American Banjo Echoes in Appalachia by Cecelia Conway. 1995).
A single verse, Barbara Buck, collected by Cecil Sharp from Laura V Donald of Dewey, VA, EFSSA No. 196, shows some similarities.
Here are the lyrics from Elizabeth Cotten:
Georgie Buck is dead
Georgie Buck is dead
And the last words he said
He didn’t want no short’nin’ in his bread
Short’nin’ in his bread
Swimmin’ in his head
Singin’ ha-ha-ha-ha
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